“There's a formula to it—a very simple formula! EVERYBODY'S A SUSPECT!!”
30 years ago, horror films were in an interesting position—the quintessential slasher genre, which had been so lucrative in the 80s with its array of exsanguination and very clumsy victims on staircases, had near exhausted itself. The usual series like Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday 13th had descended into fever dream nonsense like the latter or self-referential metaflicks as Wes Craven had done for the former—and so that same man decided to take a new take for the would-be postmodern decade. In some aspects, with how so many things currently seem to be the same, the original Scream that resulted should hold up—does it?
Despite its reputation as an outright parody by some, what’s surprising on rewatch is how genuinely well-directed it is an actual horror—the iconic opening scene is genuinely well-done in terms of slowly escalation tension, as a seemingly innocuous phone call turns nasty. You’ve got well-done POV, you’ve got only fleeting glimpses of our killer at first to stir up our nerves—Craven was after all a veteran director of the genre at this point.
The deconstructionist aspects come a bit later, mainly thanks to Jamie Kennedy as movie geek Randy—it’s a bit on the nose, perhaps, but perhaps no less so than other later films, and Kennedy’s manic performance at least makes it entertaining. The most memorable character besides our Ghostface (and spoilers on that to come on the off chance you haven’t seen this!) is of course Sidney Prescott as played by Neve Campbell—a would-be victim who’s intelligent, creative, and actually tries to fight back against when cornered. Nothing perhaps special these days, but back then it was refreshing enough.
Then of course we get to our Ghostfaces—plural, as that was also an interesting twist then. Matthew Lilard and Skeet Ulrich give us contrasting portrayals of two very disturbed kids, coldly sociopathic on one and manic on the other—and only one of them bothers with a motive. Honestly, this part of the film still resonates so well—when people do demented or stupid things in the name of what they see on much smaller screens now, when you have middle-class young guys go homicidal because of very much perceived slights, it perhaps hits in a different way than the original Gen-X commentary did.
And as such it’s the last act for me that holds up the best, all confined in one house and shot to make that setting always interesting—while performances both subdued and hammy collide entertainingly. For horror deconstruction, it’s perhaps rooted in that time, but there are parts that still ring true three decades later.
Some say it cast a mark over the genre with the resultant snarky and self-aware film that followed in its wake like Urban Legend or whatnot, but as mentioned, the genre it was setting on was exhausted with how it had been going since the late seventies—any new take would be copied until it was no longer new. Ironically, that kind of happened to Scream itself—which reached part seven this year, to somewhat rapid reception. I haven’t seen all the sequels, but it feels like a premise that didn’t go much further than maybe part four or five at best? There’s only so many times you can deconstruct horror trends before you go all ouroboros.
Either way, I still enjoy the first Scream, and it’s still good for some Samhain viewing—just don’t forget The Rules…
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